Obviously nothing is 100% safe, but this is just something I can’t really know until I live there so I figured I’d ask.
Do you feel safe walking home from your car at night after work? As a girl alone?
Also, do people walk home from the square after a night out?
Thanks!
Yes, yes and yes. I can’t speak for girls as I am a male, but it’s an exceedingly safe area with lots of foot traffic throughout the day and night. I walk everywhere.
Definitely safe, but as always be aware of your surroundings and don't leave anything in your car!
Define "night"? 6pm? 9pm? 11pm? 3 am? Going home from work will be fine as long as you don't use headphones and keep that head on a swivel!
Yes I live a few blocks from the square and I frequently walk by myself when it’s dark (morning and night). I feel extremely safe and have never had any issues
As a guy, I don't worry about walking around Canton at any time of the day. I've taken my dog out at 3am with no concerns.
Granted, I carry pepper spray at all times, but I do that almost everywhere (not just Baltimore).
One of the safer areas in Bmore but some unsavory characters still make their rounds. Pay attention to your surroundings and if it’s late at night after the bars, get an Uber home.
People get killed in canton too. Don’t use an atm at night when you are alone, ever.
I wish we could all have walking buddies, but that’s not a feasible luxury. I live in East Baltimore, in an on paper rougher area, but have learned over the years to pay attention, listen to your gut, but don’t be afraid. It’s quieter than Canton where I am, and may be less targeted by petty thieves and ne’er-do-wells, but same rules of the city apply.
To expand on this - I prefer not to let my fiancée walk around outside by herself at night, but the same goes for me. It’s far less foot traffic where we are, anyhow, and less accessible to places you’d want to go. That’s not to say that we haven’t walked at dusk from the Henderson Hopkins School area to Fells, but it’s not often, and we try not to.
Having lived in various parts of the city though (Mt. Vernon, Charles Village, Station North, Bolton Hill, Milton-Montford (or Station East, depending on who you ask)), I would say to minimize risk as a woman walking by yourself, and avoid that. If not possible, like others said, be aware of your surroundings, don’t have headphones on, keep your phone out of sight and your hands in your pockets, and just go about your way. FTR, I would do this at night myself, as a bigger man, whether I’m in Baltimore, Manhattan, Boston, LA, or wherever. Habit, maybe, but I’ve been fine at all of those places in my 20+ years of adult life and have never been caught unawares or in a bad situation.
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I feel safe 24/7 but always stay alert and aware of my surroundings.
Cousin and his gal got held at gunpoint, taken to their place, tied to chairs, and robbed blind. Lucky that’s all that happened. Maybe a block or two from the square. Head on a swivel, don’t walk home obviously drunk. Everyone here says it’s safe for Baltimore, but there will always be the “for Baltimore” rider attached. YMMV with it.
Honestly I feel like people that say that are dumb. And I'm not knocking Canton, I enjoy it, although I would never pay that much for housing just to deal with traffic and parking. But let's be HONEST, most of the violent crime in the hood comes from peoples own making-personal drama or drugs. The nicer areas of Baltimore are where the criminals GO to rob people, that's common sense. I never understood the false sense of security that people living in Baltimore's nicer neighborhoods have. I live in a working class neighborhood in Southwest Baltimore and BPD's own crime maps would tell me I have a 10x higher chance of being robbed or carjacked in Canton/Fells point, or the nicer neighborhoods of North Baltimore than on my own street.
I think it's pretty safe, as far as "feeling safe," well that's how you mess up anywhere. You're not really safe anywhere and criminals look for the people lollygagging/not paying attention/headphones in/obviously under the influence. Don't be afraid to offend somebody by crossing the street if they look sus🤣. Don't hesitate to spin the block if there's suspect people hanging around, people do get carjacked and robbed quite frequently, in the nicer areas MORE so than the hood. I've been living in Baltimore for 4+ years now and visited especially to go out in Canton/Fells point for years before that, and never really had any issues. I had a nut chase me from Ritchie Hwy back into South Baltimore just to pull up on me and politely say "I'm a nice guy but you were driving pretty aggressive and I just wanted to let you know people shoot around here" 😭, had a scammer recently try and say I backed into his car and very aggressively try to intimidate me and get my insurance information (told him we can go right back to the alleged spot because they have HD cameras, he took a picture of my tags and never saw him again and no calls from insurance), and I've only had 1 super aggressive confrontation with the squeegee boys after years of daily interactions. I was a victim of crime more in my hometown of Salisbury, MD, had one of the scariest incidents of my life down there where my friend almost got abducted by 10-15 men in front of me in the middle of the night and of course in the panic the last thing on our minds was tag numbers so there was absolutely nothing for the police to follow up with. So basically, I'm saying, don't feel safe anywhere but don't be afraid either, if you like the vibe of Canton, move there, you'll enjoy it. And yes, people walk home from the square, again, iust limit the possessions you carry so in the off chance you do get robbed, you lose as little as possible. But that's anywhere. Because I've been robbed in the hoods of Salisbury but never anywhere in Baltimore
I’ve been in SE baltimore for about 8 years, mostly on the NE end of patterson park. have drunkenly walked, biked, and scootered home from just about everywhere in the city at all hours. One of my finer moments was a walk from soundstage in the harbor to Charles village at 1am on foot solo. Hypothetically speaking also may have napped in a bush or two along Boston street coming from fells in my post college years. Scariest thing to happen to me occurred just last week when I went to throw my dogs poop bag into a dumpster and a black cat jumped out of it and ran away. scared the crap out of me lol.
Not that things don’t happen here, but nobody posts on social media that they walked home safely at night, made it to and from work without getting carjacked, or walked the dog/went running with headphones in. There’s like 20,000 people in the neighborhoods surrounding the park, multiply that by daily commutes, walks, etc. the odds of an altercation are quite low (but never zero).
In all seriousness though, as others have said…. Just be aware of your surroundings, trust your gut, and don’t feel bad about crossing streets as people are coming the other the way, especially when walking late at night. if something seems really off or it’s super late I’ll walk in the middle of the street to reduce the chance someone is hiding around a corner or something.
The only other things I’d add would be that:
you can’t put a price on a comfortable living situation. Especially when moving to a new city and particularly one like Baltimore that is very block by block. a bad spot can break you. choose a safe bet over a good deal and after a few months you’ll have a much better sense of the area, where and what you are comfortable with. A common piece of advice on here is to visit the area you are considering multiple days and times. We joke in this thread about people asking the safety question again and again but people will also help you if you have questions about a spot. Feel free to DM me as well.
Don’t escalate things, even if you are in the right. When details come out about these incidents, so many of them are a minor, drunken altercation that escalated. Better to just end the encounter and leave the area. In any large city environment you never know who’s carrying what nowadays.
I’ve fortunately never been the victim of a robbery, mugging, carjacking etc. but my rule of thumb is that I’d leave somewhere butt naked before I fought back over a material possession of mine. I don’t mean to sound victim blamey for 2&3, minor altercations shouldn’t escalate to life altering violence, and not fighting back doesn’t always work, but the reality is not fighting back won’t make things worse for you.
Thank you so much!!
I’m a female coming to Baltimore for a few months for work, one rental option is on the NE end of Patterson park actually (E Pratt along the park). Is that an okay area for me? I will be working day shift and I have a dog I will walk but besides that I’m not a big walker and stay inside lol.
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Yes, but always be aware of your surroundings.
“Is the reportedly cleanest, safest area in Baltimore with record numbers of young homeowners safe for lil’ ol’ me??”
lmao, enough with these fucking posts.
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The_Big_Smackowski t1_it2lxha wrote
Definitely one of the safer neighborhoods in the city, have unfortunately had a family member assaulted late (~3-4am) in Canton near the square, but like others have said be smart, stick to well lit areas and streets to help mitigate your risk.